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New leadership setting tone at Adena

New Adena Local Schools High School Principal Josh Jones, right, and new Middle School Principal Dustin England, left, talk with new Elementary School Principal Lisa Wayland, middle, about the chrome book program that all three schools have introduced to assist in student learning in the shared library of the school.(Photo: Robert McGraw/The Gazette)Buy Photo

FRANKFORT - A new leadership team will roam the halls of the Adena Local Schools campus this year as part of ongoing effort to bring a change in the culture and expand programming in the district.

The only familiar face among the campus' three principal positions will be that of Lisa Wayland, who has served the district for six years as middle school principal but this year is moving to the elementary to fill the shoes of retired longtime elementary principal Lee Snyder.

The move opened the door for the hiring of former Chillicothe City Schools educator Dustin England to be brought in as middle school principal, while Craig Kerns' departure for Huntington has resulted in former Zane Trace intervention specialist Josh Jones coming over as the new high school principal.

Throw into the mix the fact that Superintendent John Balzer is in just his second year at Adena's helm and the fact that Kell Morton has taken over the treasurer's post long-held by the now-retired Shaune Anders, and you have a lot of fresh blood leading the district.

"We've chosen very well," Balzer said. "I think we've gotten the right people in these jobs to take Adena forward in a positive way and introduce a lot of energy and positivity toward kids achieving what they want to do with their futures."

Jones said his intent is to create an atmosphere where each day is productive and as distraction-free as possible, with an emphasis on safety in the high school.

"I'm big on consistency, making sure everybody in the building is consistent with what we're doing, a team atmosphere — a positive approach towards it," he said. "(Students) will see me a lot. I will be in and out of classrooms, I want to know what the kids are doing, I'm going to encourage them. I have made a point to meet teams already, just to meet the kids and let them know I'm there to help and there to encourage.

"I've already told the students don't be afraid to come to me with any issues or if they just want to come talk, I'm there."

England wants to see more staff involvement and input in providing more options for students, as well as with opening up lines of communication between the staff, students, community, and administration.

"My style is, 'Do they have a say in what's happening?' " England said. "Trying to unify and get on the same page — are we all having the same learning targets, the same standards, being one team? Kind of my theme for the year is setting up one-word goals for everyone — on opening day I'm going to talk about what's your anthem for the year, that one word we can focus on as a team?"

Wayland said, in the elementary, there will be a big push in the area of grades Kindergarten through 3 literacy.

"We have a really competent staff that's capable of making great progress in that area, but I'm not sure that all the right tools were utilized as they should have been, so we've made some switches there," Wayland said. "We've put more resources in the low level, in the kindergarten, so we can get these kids started right off the bat and continuing with a literacy coach in the first grade and second grade and hopefully, the goal is, by third grade, we don't have that terrible report with the third grade (reading) guarantee and we can send all these kids along to fourth grade."

Another section of kindergarten was added this year to reduce student-teacher classroom ratios at that level, and Wayland said she will emphasize more collaborative work between teachers of different grade levels so they will be more aware of the work being done in both the grade level below and above them.

A couple of new programs will be put in place this year in the district. One is a Morning Mile that will begin each school day starting shortly after the beginning of the school year that Balzer hopes will attract participation from members of the community.

"One of our staff people found this, and we'll be one of the first schools in Ohio to implement this program," Balzer said. "It's a walking program where the kids can come in in the morning and walk and get some blood flow going before school starts. There are incentives and rewards for achieving milestones in the program, we've had some local businesses that have been generous and willing to support it to get it started.

"This is something we welcome the community to participate in with us as well. The local folks in the community can walk with the kids, get some interaction between the school culture and the community so that there's better understanding and connection."

All grade levels will take part in the program.

Adena will become part of the United Way's Map Your Future program this year, which provides middle school students with resources and exposure to different career pathways to help them identify their interests and plot a path through their high school years and beyond. The relatively new program last year was being implemented in the Chillicothe, Union-Scioto, and Huntington schools.

Balzer said the district also will be looking at putting together a permanent improvements initiative to start prioritizing infrastructure spending needs moving forward.